1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio/video (A/V) data recording/reproducing, and more particularly, to a single recording medium on which is recorded a data structure which is capable of linking and reproducing audio data and video data after the video data and audio data have been recorded on the medium, and to a method and apparatus for recording/reproducing using the data structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the existing data structures for recording, as shown in FIG. 1, the video data structure and the audio data structure are independent each other. That is, the structure of data and information for a video program is made of video data 11, a video data descriptor table 12, and a video program descriptor table 13, and likewise, the structure of data and information for an audio program is made of audio data 21, an audio data descriptor table 22, and an audio program descriptor table 23.
Since audio data and video data are recorded/reproduced separately as shown in FIG. 1, separate recording/reproducing apparatuses exist for each type of data. Each recording/reproducing apparatus separately generates and records information (a data descriptor table, and a program descriptor table) on data the apparatus records.
In the linkage relation between video data and information data shown in FIG. 1, video data 11 is made of a plurality of video data units as shown in FIG. 2. A video data unit descriptor for each video data unit is recorded in the video data descriptor table 12. When programs are made of one or more video data units, such information is recorded in each program in the video program descriptor table 13, and information on one or more video data units forming each program is recorded in the program descriptor of the corresponding program in the form of information on a video data unit descriptor. Program descriptors are recorded in a video program descriptor table 13.
FIG. 3 shows the linkage relation between audio data and information data shown in FIG. 1, and illustrates the data structure for recording/reproducing audio data, which is separate from the data structure for recording/reproducing video data shown in FIG. 2.
Like the structure of video data and information data, audio data 21 is made of a plurality of audio data units. An audio data unit descriptor having information on each audio data unit is recorded in an audio data descriptor table 22. When programs are made of one or more audio data units, information on one or more data units forming each program is recorded in the program descriptor of the corresponding program in the form of information on an audio data unit descriptor. That is, audio program descriptors are recorded in an audio program descriptor table 23.
In existing recording structures, on one recording medium, the structure of which data and information for a video program is contained, and a separate video recording/reproducing apparatus performing recording and/or reproducing of the video program using the information structure exists. At the same time, independently of this structure, the structure of data and information for an audio program is recorded on the recording medium, and a separate audio recording/reproducing apparatus performing recording and/or reproducing of the audio program using the information structure exists. These two structures are independent of each other, and each recording/reproducing apparatus performs recording/reproducing operations independently, without considering the other's data and information structure.
A recording/reproducing apparatus using such a data and information structure can record/reproduce both video data and audio data, but cannot perform an operation in which two types of data are linked and then reproduced. For example, the apparatus cannot perform a so-called slide show operation, in which a song recorded in audio data is reproduced and at the same time, a plurality of still pictures recorded in video data are reproduced. This has been a problem.